Freak Outs and Complications
by Cassandra Mulder
Summary: After "It Should Have Been Lorelai", what Christopher did is driving Lorelai crazy. (L/L)


Title: Freak Outs and Complications  
  
Author: Cassandra Mulder  
  
E-mail: cassandra_mulder@yahoo.com  
  
Website: http://www.geocities.com/cassandra_mulder  
  
Feedback: Yes, please. Flames are used to burn the rest of my garbage. ;)  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Classification: Gilmore Girls; Luke/Lorelai friendship/angst; post-ep  
  
Spoilers: "It Should Have Been Lorelai"  
  
Summary: After "It Should Have Been Lorelai", what Christopher did is driving Lorelai crazy. (L/L)  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the Gilmore Girls, or Luke, or Sookie, and you couldn't give me a million dollars   
to take Michel. It all belongs to Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, Hofflund/Polone, and the WB.  
  
Author's Notes: This is my first "Gilmore Girls" fic, and this idea just hit me the day after I saw "It Should  
Have Been Lorelai", so I just ran with it. Hope it flows like the show and you enjoy!  
  
**************************************************************************************  
  
Lorelai charged into Luke's Diner, and flopped herself down at the counter.  
  
"Coffee?" Luke asked, without even turning around.  
  
"Why, of course," Lorelai responded, but there was none of the usual spark in her voice.  
  
Luke looked concerned as he sat her cup in front of her.   
  
"Are you all right?" he asked her with a frown.  
  
"Of course I'm all right, why would I not be all right?"  
  
Luke just shrugged. "Is Christopher gone?"  
  
"Yeah, he and his bimbo Barbie doll left this morning," Lorelai muttered.  
  
Luke suppressed a smile. "Bimbo Barbie doll?" He looked her straight in the eye. "If I didn't know you   
better, I'd say you were jealous," he smirked.  
  
She smirked right back. If there was one thing Lorelai Gilmore was good at, it was the smirking game.   
She made an undignified, almost snorting sound.   
  
"I am not jealous," she said defiantly, grabbing her coffee and hopping off the stool. "And I must go to   
work now. Bye, Mr. Nosy Man," she flung over her shoulder on the way out the door.  
  
Luke just shook his head and went back to work. If he lived to be two hundred, he would never know   
what to do with that woman.  
  
***  
  
"Mom, *what* is your problem? Cause I know you have one, even if you think you're not going to tell me."   
  
Rory had been trying to coax her mother out of the dumps all evening, but it wasn't working.  
  
"Nothing, Rory. Eat your lo mein."  
  
"I don't like lo mein. Is it Dad?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Sherry and Dad?"  
  
"No," Lorelai lied.  
  
"Ha! I knew it!"  
  
"Knew what?"  
  
"You're lying."  
  
"Am not.  
  
"Are too."  
  
"Am not."  
  
"Are too. You have your lying face on."  
  
Lorelai scoffed. "My lying face?! What the...?" She felt Rory's forehead. "Was there something in   
your Chinese, Babe? Cause you're talking crazy now."  
  
Rory rolled her eyes. "You hated Sherry. Admit it."  
  
"I did not hate Sherry."  
  
Rory gave her a pointed look.  
  
"I really, really, reeeeeeeaaaaallllly disliked her."  
  
"I knew it!"  
  
"Well, you're just Little Miss Know-It-All tonight, aren't you?"  
  
Rory chucked her empty carton into the trash, and tossed her chopsticks into the sink without a word.  
  
"I'm going to Lane's," she said, finally.  
  
"Mmm, hmm, just ditch your old mom."  
  
Rory dropped a kiss on Lorelai's head. "You're not old, you haven't even caught up with me yet,"   
she said lightly as she headed out the door.  
  
"Ha, ha, funny," Lorelai muttered.  
  
Rory was only making light because she didn't know what was really going on. She didn't know that   
somehow, though totally unrelated, her father and maternal grandmother shared the same freak out   
gene.  
  
And it just wasn't at all like Christopher to do what he had done.  
  
The doorbell rang and Lorelai dragged herself up off of the couch to answer it.  
  
"Sookie? What are you doing here?"  
  
Sookie looked everywhere but at Lorelai. "Well, uh, Rory certainly didn't call me."  
  
"Uh huh. Get in here, it's freezing outside."  
  
Sookie sighed and walked through the door. "Okay, okay. Rory said you hadn't been yourself for a   
couple of days, so I just wanted to come by and see if you're all right."  
  
"I'm - I'm just... I don't know. When Christopher left the day before yesterday, he didn't exactly leave on   
good terms with me, and that's just not like him," Lorelai explained, walking into the living room.  
  
"Have a seat," she said, dropping on the couch.  
  
Sookie took off her coat and sat down as well. "What do you mean he left on bad terms?"  
  
"Well, before he left the other morning, I told him I had something to tell him."  
  
Sookie nodded.  
  
"So, I just told him that I was happy for him. You know, that he's finally got his life together and stuff. And   
that I used to have this picture of us getting back together in the back of my mind, and I thought that was   
why none of my relationships ever made it, you know?  
  
"Then he completely... freaks! He stood up right there in the middle of *Luke's* and said, 'How dare you   
put that on me?' Except I wasn't blaming him for anything. Anyway, he made this huge scene and everyone   
was staring, and then he just left." She shrugged. "He told Rory bye and she's none the wiser."  
  
"Oh, honey," Sookie said, squeezing her arm. "He hasn't called to apologize or anything?"  
  
Lorelai shook her head. "I've just never seen him like act like that, that's what's so weird. It's like he caught   
the overreact-and-take-everything-the-wrong-way disease from my mother. I just don't know," she sighed.  
  
"And he made a scene at Luke's?" Sookie grimaced.  
  
"Yup."  
  
"What did Luke say?"  
  
"Nothing. He was staring though. He just... looked at me, and then he tried to distract everyone else."  
  
"That's Luke."  
  
"Yeah, which has nothing to do with Christopher."  
  
"You said you were over Christopher..."  
  
"Why are you here again?"  
  
"Lorelai..."  
  
"Sookie."  
  
"Okay, okay, but I told you - "  
  
Lorelai cut her off with a look. "Bigger problems here."  
  
"If you say so," Sookie gave in.  
  
"I say so."  
  
"So, is there anything I can do?"  
  
"Nah, this whole thing is just going to have to work itself out."  
  
"Have you talked to Luke at all?"  
  
"Sookie..." Lorelai said in her best threatening tone.  
  
"Lorelai, he's bound to be wondering if you're all right. The least you could do is put his mind at ease."  
  
"Not about Luke..."  
  
"I think it's more about Luke than you think it is. If you don't need me to hang around, I've got kind of a   
date with Jackson."  
  
Lorelai made a shooing motion with her hands. "No. Fine. Go, go."  
  
"Think about what I said, okay?"  
  
"Even if it's delusional?" Lorelai asked with a smarmy grin.  
  
Sookie just shot her crazy best friend an exasperated look and walked out the door.  
  
Lorelai shut the door behind her and sighed.  
  
She didn't feel like being cooped up tonight, so she decided to go for a drive and see where she   
ended up.  
  
***  
  
Luke was wiping down the counter in anticipation of closing time in twenty minutes. He was all alone,   
seeing as the most recent customer had left ten minutes before, and Jess was upstairs supposedly   
doing his homework.  
  
He was filling up the coffee filter for the morning rush when he heard the bell on the door announce   
another customer's arrival.  
  
"Just a sec," he said finishing with the coffee pot. He turned around to find Lorelai leaning on the   
counter, with what could only be described as a sheepish smile on her face.  
  
"Hey," she said quietly.  
  
"Hey."  
  
"So, were you gonna make some coffee, or is that for in the morning?"  
  
"Uh, yeah, but I can turn it on now if you want some."  
  
"Thanks. That would be good."  
  
She was fidgeting. Luke didn't like it when she fidgeted. It usually meant she was nervous, and that   
made *him* nervous.   
  
"So," he said.  
  
"Yeah, so..."  
  
You're being lame, Lor, really lame, she thought to herself.  
  
"Is everything okay? Cause, I mean, you're here and it's kinda late... No Rory..."  
  
He's such a conversationalist, she thought.  
  
"It's not late, Luke. You close at ten," she laughed. "And Rory's over at Lane's. I just... kinda got bored,   
and I heard there was this place that has *phenomenal* coffee, so I thought I'd try it out."  
  
She managed to get a small smile out of him.  
  
"Something's bothering you, Lorelai."  
  
"No, it's not."  
  
"Yes, it is. I can tell."  
  
"Oooooh," she made a spooky noise. "Who are you now? Miss Cleo? Because I must say, even   
with the whole plaid thing going on, you dress better than her. Oh, and you don't have the fake,   
really cheesy Jamaican accent... Oh my God! You're not secretly a shaman, are you?" Her eyes   
widened in mock horror.  
  
"Lorelai..." he said in his best gruff voice.  
  
"Sheesh, what am I, twelve tonight? Everybody keeps saying my name in that tone, like I just got   
caught smoking behind the pool house at the country club."  
  
Luke frowned.  
  
"Not that I ever did. I'm just being hypothetical," she said, putting on her best innocent face.  
  
He just shook his head, and with a low "Mmm hmm" turned to pour her coffee into one of the giant   
mugs sitting on the counter. Then he sat the cup in front of her and waited.  
  
She took a sip. "Good coffee," she said with an overly bright smile.  
  
"Thanks," he said, trying to be patient.  
  
He leaned against the back counter and crossed his arms, watching her. He was done for the night,   
and if she wanted to talk to him, now was her chance. He wasn't about to pretend he didn't want to   
listen to her tonight.  
  
"So, where's Jess?"  
  
"Doing homework."  
  
"Ah."  
  
Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.  
  
"Why are you here, Lorelai?"  
  
"Coffee."  
  
"No, you're not."  
  
"Ah, the psychic thing again. Maybe you can tell me why I'm here."  
  
"You're upset about what happened yesterday with Rory's dad."  
  
How was he going to get through this conversation without sounding jealous? That was something that   
got harder to do over time. Pretending he was okay with Christopher, okay with Max, when the truth   
was he wasn't okay with them at all. But it was her life. It had always been her life, ever since he'd   
known her, and there was nothing he could do about her choices if she didn't see him as anything   
but her friend.  
  
Lorelai was silently staring into her coffee cup, as if she suddenly saw ducks swimming in the murky   
liquid.  
  
"He's never done that before, Luke. Ever. I've known him for eighteen years, and he's never had a   
completely irrational outburst like that. And he'd normally never even dream of doing anything like   
that in public either. In front of my friends... It's like an alien took over his body or something."  
  
"Happens to the best of us."  
  
"I mean, you give a guy a way to go about his life and an I'm over you, and he loses it."  
  
"It's not your fault, Lorelai. He's the one with the issues, not you."  
  
"Courtesy of *Sherry*," she said in a snotty voice.  
  
"If you're over him, then why is this bothering you so much?"  
  
"I don't know... I thought we were friends. That we'd always be friends. Not just for the typical reason   
that it was for Rory's sake, but because we still liked each other. Even though maybe things didn't turn   
out the way they should've.  
  
"Maybe we just can't have that anymore when he's involved with someone else."  
  
"I don't know what to tell you, except relationships are tricky, no matter what kind."  
  
"Like you would know."  
  
It slipped out before she realized she'd said it. Open mouth, insert foot, she smacked herself mentally.  
  
Luke only looked resigned to what she'd said, but she knew there was more going on beneath the   
surface, just like she always did.  
  
"Oh God, Luke. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean - "  
  
"Yeah, you did. It's okay, I deserved that."  
  
"No, you didn't."  
  
"Lorelai, you open yourself up to relationships. Romantic, friendly, neighborly, maternally. I can't   
even communicate the simplest thing to my own nephew. No one has ever sucked at any kind of   
relationship like I do.  
  
"If Christopher was stupid enough to blow it with you, then that's his problem. He'll either come around   
or he won't. That's something he'll have to live with."  
  
Lorelai smiled. "I wish it was that simple. But you're a good friend, Luke. I think you underestimate   
yourself. A lot."  
  
Luke smiled back slightly. She was really the only one who could make him smile, when she wasn't   
frustrating him to death. He found a lot of frustration came with loving Lorelai Gilmore. If only she knew.  
  
"Maybe you just overestimate me."  
  
"Nah. I'm a good judge of character," she said with a superior air. Maybe she was getting back to her snappy self.  
  
"I hope so."  
  
"Thank you, Luke."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"Being my friend. It can't be easy, even as lovable as I am."  
  
If Luke blushed, he'd be doing it right now. He only laughed a little. "I should be thanking *you*."   
  
"Let's not get all mushy," she cracked.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
He came around the counter and sat on the stool next to Lorelai.  
  
"Look, I know it's hard, but try not to let this thing with Christopher get to you, okay?" He swallowed   
hard. "He's the crazy one if he's willing to mess up *anything* he has with you."  
  
Was that the way everyone always said he looked at her? She'd honestly never noticed before.  
  
Lorelai smiled and reached over to squeeze his hand. "I'll try." She paused, trying to see more of what   
was behind that look, but trying not to let him know. Finally, she shook her head.  
  
"Well, I better go. Ben and Jerry are waiting for me at home," she said, waggling her eyebrows.  
  
Luke laughed. "Have a good night."  
  
"You too."  
  
And with that, she kissed him on the cheek and bounded out the door before either of them could   
say anything else.  
  
Luke could do nothing but sit there completely stunned. She had to be the single most puzzling   
woman he'd ever known, and he didn't find any member of the fairer sex easy to understand.  
  
Lorelai didn't quite understand her actions herself. They really rather scared her, and while they   
didn't require a road trip, she wasn't so sure she'd be able to face Luke for coffee in the morning.  
  
They were just friends, right? That's all she intended for them to be.  
  
My intentions record isn't exactly pristine, she thought.  
  
Things had just gotten even *more* complicated.  
  
Fin 


End file.
